We have a variety of photographic equipment to hand, including:
| Nikon D200 | 10 Megapixel Didital SLR. A semi-professional camera which boast a very high build quality, excellent results and a bewildering array of programmable options. Now superceded by the D300 we managed to get this camera for the very cheap price of £475 ($950-1000), a huge reduction from the original purchase price which was £1395. The camera has only taken 165 shots in its life, so we are happy people. |
| Nikon D50 | 6 megapixel Digital SLR. An entry level digital SLR camera which gives exceptional output. |
| Nikkor 18-70 | The kit lens with the D200, as you may expect from semi-pro kit, this is a very good, fast and sharp lens. |
| Nikkor 18-55 | The very good "kit" lens which you get with the camera at purchase. Very good lens for wider angle and close up shots from close range (think about it and you will understand what I mean) This lens uses the Nikon Silent wave technology. |
| Sigma 55-200 | An excellent mid-range lens at £130, which we tend to use most of the time as it's wide focal range means you don't have to change lenses all the time when changing from wide to tight angle shooting. You can shoot moderately wide angle to moderately tight closeups. Useful if you don't wish to take the whole package out with you for the day. |
| Tamron 70-300 | Pretty much as the Sigma above, but you can get a little closer to wildlife. Costs about £200, unless purchased with the camera in which case it is about £100. This lens also has a macro switch, although you can argue that macro is not best done with a lens 30cm's long. |
| Sigma 170-500 | Much more expensive and larger lens, you get really close to the "action" with this kit, but at a cost £560 just for the lens. This lens gives quite soft output, but is perfectably acceptable. We like it anyway, and it is one of the least expensive 500mm lenses around. |
| 2* focal length multiplier | We used this lens with the 70-300mm Tamron until we bought the 170-500 Sigma. It works, and quite well at that. but alas not with the big sigma at 500mm :-) cost £100 (now reduced to £80) |
| Sigma External Flash | Essential if you want to shoot well with flash. Built in Speedlights are all well and good but they are just too inflexible. This flash has both tilt and swivel head, and an inbuilt hood. |
| T2 ring, macro extension tubes and a barlow lens | Placed between the camera body and a lens the extension tubes allow your lens to focus at closer ranges than they would otherwise be able to, the T2 ring is used to attach the tubes to the camera. The barlow lens allows the Camera body to attach to a telescope. Total cost for all about £100. |
| Konica-Minolta Dimage Z1 | 3 megapixel Digital compact. |
| Wide angle extension lens | More on the rest of our kit later. |